I flew to the Netherlands to do training for CogState the evening of June 2nd. I left about 9:30pm at night. My flight was very expensive for some reason (maybe because it was booked late), so when I checked in, I was given the option to upgrade to World Business Class for $200 or 15,000 miles. I chose to use my miles and treat myself. Well….I really never should have done that!! WBC is absolutely a different world. You don’t even feel like you are on the same airplane with everyone else. It’s not like domestic first class, which is really just coach with more legroom, wider seats and alcohol. In WBC, you have these pod seats that lay completely flat, on demand TV, gourmet meals served from actual menus (I chose the salad with vinaigrette, tenderloin beef tips, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, fruit and…..an ice cream brownie desert…does this sound like airplane food???). You also have hot towels and a little care package with socks, chapstick, toothpaste and brush, eye mask, comb, and a water bottle! Drinks are served constantly; computers can be plugged in….. Unfortunately (or fortunately), because it was so late, I slept for 5 hours of the 7 hour trips so didn’t make it through a single movie, or really get to enjoy my surroundings much.
Once in the Netherlands, I took a train from Schiphol Airport to Leiden, the town I was teaching the class in. I checked into my hotel, which was very nice on the outside – but a typical European hotel on the inside (i.e., tiny rooms with pretty crummy amenities). I realized later that the “hotel” had a total of only 9 rooms! Breakfast was included with my room, but was really disappointing. Apparently a standard Netherlands breakfast consists of about 15 different kinds of breads and crackers and varying types of spreads (including chocolate, hazelnut, honey, cheeses, peanut butter, liver paste and several other things that I wasn’t sure what they were because they were in Dutch and didn’t have pictures on them).
The city of Leiden was really very nice. I simply could not get over the fact that there are very few cars on the roads and bicycles and mopeds everywhere!! You see about 100 bikes for every car. In fact, standing on the sidewalk next to the road, you could watch the road for about 5 minutes before you even saw a car!! Gas is about $7/gallon there, cars are expensive, and the city has done an incredible job of providing places for bicyclists to ride (every street has a bike track on both sides of it).
Besides the bicycles, there were these amazingly huge (the picture doesn’t do this justice) windmills around the city. And…of course…you have “coffee houses” every few blocks (walking past one I nearly got knocked over by the cloud of marijuana smoke that came billowing out)…but their presence is far more subtle than in Amsterdam. Overall, Leiden seemed like a very quaint and classy place.
The people of the Netherlands, as a group, seem to be very friendly, speak perfect English (every child takes English, French and German in school – most people I ran into were happy to talk to me and practice their English), and are in incredible physical shape! I saw literally 2 people who would qualify as even slightly overweight while I was there (and they were together and probably tourists). I am sure this comes from all the bike riding and the fact that most of them eat very lightly at breakfast and at lunch.
The clinic that I visited (to teach at) was among the best I have ever seen. The people were incredibly intelligent and organized. I wished that I would be working with them myself (I was actually covering the training for someone who is based in Australia). Because they were so good, the training was effortless and we finished early. This allowed me to travel home a day earlier than expected.
I arrived home at 7pm on Weds night – only to find that someone had swapped my child with a white Asian baby! It seems that Sienna got bit by a mosquito right between her eyes (and on her hand and forehead) and it swelled up terribly to the point that her eyes looked half closed. Her forehead also had a huge bump on it that she was scratching (try to tell a 1 year old not to scratch!!) Forest, upon waking her up earlier that morning and seeing her all swelled up like that was convinced that she had been bitten by a spider overnight and he started making arrangements to take a day off work and a trip to the doctor. Daycare convinced him that it was probably just a mosquito bite and, with a little help from Google and some pictures on a few peoples’ blogs, he calmed down some (but still did make a trip to the pharmacy to ask if there was anything that could be done to help – which there isn’t).
Other than the mosquito bite incident, Forest and Sienna fared well for the 2 days I was gone (with a little help from our main babysitter when Forest was in class).
I’m glad to be home and am looking forward to staying here for a while. No big trips planned for the near future…well….except the Double JJ Ranch this weekend and Florida 2 weeks from now….and a few of trips to Gaylord….and the Rothbury Music Festival on July 4th weekend – but other than that….we’ll be home all summer.
My hotel....
...room left something to be desired (yes, this is the whole thing)
This picture doesn't even do this justice. The bike area was 3 times as large as what is seen here.
Go to the hospital in style!
Leiden City Center
A typical road (notice the bike path on left is almost as large as the road itself)
Bikes were lined up in front of all stores like this
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